A HEREFORDSHIRE athlete has achieved the coveted GB vest and emulated her father in gaining international recognition.

Nicky Turvey, from Yarpole, has been a fixture on the county's running circuit for many years, but it was the broadening of her athletic endeavours to triathlon which caught the attention of the selectors.

"I kept getting injured running," said the 55-year-old. "I had been doing a lot of fell running and had an ankle injury so I started riding my bike to keep my fitness up.

"One day, I was watching a triathlon and thought 'why not give it a go'.

"At the time I could only swim a length."

She had some swimming lessons with Halo and bought her first road bike - and within two months she was ready to tackle her first triathlon.

Her first outing was at Lucton in July 2012, when she was third in her age group. And now she had fully caught the bug.

"In my first year I did three and I won two of them in my age group," she said. "I trained hard in the winter and the following year I did nine, winning my age group in all but one of them.

"That was when my ambition of getting on the GB team really began."

She entered two qualifiers earlier this year and qualified for the GB team in the first in Nottingham before winning the second at Rother Valley near Sheffield and heading off for the ITU World Triathlon Sprint Age Group finals in Edmonton, Canada.

These were held at the same location as the elite world championships, swimming in the same lake, biking the same roads and running on a similar route before finishing on the same blue carpet which would later see the Brownlee brothers completing their event.

In overcast conditions, ideal for racing, Turvey had a fine swim, coming out of the lake in ninth position before collecting her bike to ride around Edmonton.

The cycle section saw her move up to seventh position and she held that placing on the run which took her over a mixture of trails and tarmac.

"That means I have now qualified for the European Championships in Geneva next July and, because I was in the top three British finishers in Edmonton, I have already qualified for the World Championships in Chicago next year, too," she said.

"The downside is that that we have to pay for our own travel.

"The sprint triathlon involves a 750m swim, a 20km bike ride followed by a 5km run and it's something that I can fit in the training for around a demanding job - I am a service manager in children's services.

"The longer distances would be difficult to fit in, but I am a bit of an addict - work, train, eat and sleep."

Turvey's running career had begun when she was doing military service.

"I was an army officer and was the first woman to command a male troop," she said. "I was in the army for five years and had to be very fit.

The sporting genes, however, were passed down from the previous generation.

"My dad, Bill Thomas, played schoolboy rugby for England," she said. "He was the president of Luctonians and played there, too.

"He only saw me do one triathlon but he would have been so proud."

Daughter Suzanne has also inherited her mum's running tradition and has regularly featured in the leaders of the Herefordshire Cross-Country League in recent seasons.

"Suzanne is now a qualified doctor and she is working in Chelmsford now," she said. "So I don't expect she will be back for many events in the near future."

Turvey, however, will certainly be continuing to run for the Croft Ambrey club in the winter event to retain her fitness during the dark months.

But she has a good memory to carry over into next season.

"My last event of the season was the Ludlow triathlon," she said. "I was the second lady home, overall, and won my age group so that was a good way to finish the season."